Lady Grace was invited to dine with Lord Fawcett, accompanied by her chaperone and intimate acquaintance of Lord Fawcett, Mrs Derby. His lordship was keen to appraise Lady Grace for her suitability as a guest at his legendary annual party. Mrs Derby having the knack of selecting young ladies of a certain calibre that he found most pleasing. Her choices had not let him down yet.
The dinner was a truly sumptuous affair with splendid food and wine and all parties dressed in the finest fashions of the day. Lady Grace managed to acquit herself quite well almost the whole way through the evening. Although Mrs Derby was horrified that she brought up her pirate ancestry at dinner. (Even if Lord Fawcett thought it very entertaining!). They discussed many pressing topics of the day such as the Irish situation, the price of linen, travelling by ship, that blasted Napolean fellow as well as several suitable husbands for Lady Grace.
Unfortunately by the end of the meal the wine had gone somewhat to Lady Grace's head, unaccustomed as she was to having so much of it. And thus her manners were found sadly lacking as they discussed other potential house party guests. Making her disdain for the lower members of society apparent she could not comprehend how Lady Selina, daughter of the Marquis of Sidbury could have married so beneath her. Nor was she pleased to hear her chosen husband was the Chief Punishment Officer of England, declaring that she herself had never been beaten and was all the better for it.
Berated by Mrs Derby for such an outburst, her resulting pouting enraged Lord Fawcett and she soon found herself standing hands upon her head in a corner of the room, as her companions repaired to the drawing room without her.
She felt the humiliation keenly, no-one had ever treated her thus. And her shame increased tenfold when Lord Fawcett made her remove her dress and stand there in her undergarments. Appealing to Mrs Derby did her no good and the promise of being soundly flogged was made. Nor was Mrs Derby pleased to see her charge wearing undergarments of such a distinctly racy kind.
After quite some time in the corner, it was a much more meek Lady Grace that was called to Lord Fawcett where he soon impressed on her bottom his intense dislike of pouting and bad manners in a lady. Mrs Derby then took her turn to show her disapproval, paddling her naughty charge's bottom quite soundly.
Such punishments by Lord Fawcett and Mrs Derby continued for some time, until Lady Grace was sufficiently contrite and subdued. Peace and order were restored and the evening spent in much pleasanter activities.
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7 comments:
Word has reached Sir Abel Cadogan of Lady Grace's insulting* comments about his darling wife, Lady Selina. He is most displeased and believes it to be his moral duty to take steps to address the insult.
*I just typed 'insluting', which sounds v different but should surely be a word!
Mrs Debry quite agrees with Sir Abel about the audacity of Lady Grace and has sent a note round to Grosvenor Square to that effect.
Dear me, Grace. You are obviously going to cause me an awful lot of trouble this November!
Tsk, tsk. Such behaviour.. Lady Grace wasn't quite living up to her name, was she? :P
Lady Grace's cousin, Lady Francesca, would like to hearby disassociate herself with her cousin's views. Regardless of what views of "marrying below onesself" Lady Francesca may or may not hold, she would never be foolish enough to voice them in public, and deplores the inappropriate behaviour of her relative.
&STOMPS FOOT* Goodnes gracious me, I had thought this discussion was done with. I certainly was made to repent quite soundly at the time. Please Mrs Derby can we hear no more of it?
And if I must meet this Sir Abel fellow be assured I shall behave exactly as you should wish me to, and I'll keep my true feelings to myself. So let us be done with it.
And dearest Cousin Francesa, must you always be so meek? Have I taught you nothing in our yeas together?
Shouldn't Mrs Derby also have been punished for her protege's outrageous behavior?
I suppose that's best done privately, safely out of the view of her rambunctious little charge.
(splutters....)
Indeed Indiana, I take that suggestion most ill. A lady of my age and experience can scarecly receive the punishment that I would mete out to a charge!
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